The present invention relates to a receive coil and a magnetic resonance imaging method and apparatus, and more particularly to a receive coil comprising a plurality of conductive loops having series capacitors, and a magnetic resonance imaging method and apparatus employing such a receive coil.
In a magnetic resonance imaging apparatus, a receive coil is disposed closed to and around the subject so that a magnetic resonance signal is measured at a position as close to an imaging site as possible to improve the SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) of the signal.
Typical examples of such a receive coil include a solenoid-type receive coil for use in spine imaging. Since the spine is generally recognized as three parts, i.e., the C(cervical)-spine, the T(thoracic)-spine and the L(lumbar)-spine, three types of the receive coils are provided to be properly used according to which part of the spine is to be imaged.
If a plurality of the receive coils are simultaneously used, electromagnetic coupling occurs and it changes the resonance frequency of the coil. Therefore, when two or more parts of the spine in the same subject are to be imaged, respective dedicated receive coils are used and exchanged appropriately according to use so that the coupling can be avoided.
When the plurality of parts of the spine are imaged as described above, the need to exchange the receive coils makes operation cumbersome, and requires the subject to change his/her position, for example, which may cause a burden to the subject.
On the other hand, the plurality of parts of the spine can be simultaneously imaged if the axial length of the solenoid coil is extended to widen the receive sensitivity range in the body axis direction. However, the coil having such an extended length reduces the SNR of the received signal.